What is with our weather lately? Thankfully with the right attitude, crazy weather doesn’t ruin a wedding day. That can be said for Vanessa and Julian, who quite simply just kept calm and collected, and Vanessa's infectious smile helped to brighten the day. Held at the Officers Mess Naval Base in Takapuna, their wedding was originally meant to be held outside, but with a storm passing through, everything had to be moved inside.
You can never plan the weather. It comes and goes as it pleases and on some occasions, it can make or break a day. I have always found that when it comes to weddings, you can always work with what the day brings, even when it is cyclone. Ex-tropical cyclone Fehi decided to make its way to our shores a few days after Briana and Dave’s wedding, but as you can see, rather than put a complete dampener on the day, we worked with the wonderfully moody backdrop it provided. It was a great setting to have contrast with the warm, sunny vibes of the couple and the wedding party.
I photographed Tish and Ben for their engagement shoot last August in the middle of winter when the skies were dark and threatening rain. Coming back to Kaiapoi only five months later for their wedding, it couldn’t have been a more different day. Although the day started out with some heavy fog, it turned into the hottest day of the month with clear blue skies and sunshine all day long.
Tish and Ben are a wonderfully fun couple with surrounded by an equally fun group of family and friends. They were all so laidback which made it very easy to get some candid shots of everyone having a good time. The ceremony was held at Totara, a private homestead in West Eyreton that had stunning park-like gardens and provided enough shade for people to escape from the hot Canterbury sun. Later that evening, everyone moved on to West Eyreton Hall for the reception.
The days leading up to Maya & Jammie's Tauranga wedding were, a little undesirable! On January 4th a large storm came through across the North Island that had everyone on their toes; it unfortunately had left some damage in their home town of Thames which made getting some decorations difficult - even closing off the roads to get to their venue. Thankfully on the day of the wedding, the rain and wind had stopped for an amazingly beautiful day, with friends and family helping to set up the venue and make sure everything was perfect. Their wedding even made a 2 page spread in the Women's Day magazine! (featured below).
When the beautiful Megan from She Said Yes asked me to photograph the launch of the Bride Tribe I knew this was an event not to be missed. She wanted a safe place for brides to get away from the hype, media and advertisements of everything you "need" and "must have" for a wedding. Its no secret that the average price of a wedding is expensive which is sitting around the $30,000 mark in New Zealand (basically a deposit on a house!).
